2013 Second-Quietest Tornado Year since 2000

The Examiner has a blog post discussing the latest confusion in climate change: the lack of extreme weather.  2012 had extreme temperatures but 2013's weather moderated and there was a decline in extreme events like tornadoes.  The key take-away:

The problem is that 2013 is proving to be among the years with the fewest number of tornados on record, according to data compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla.  

There have been 940 tornadoes in the U.S. between Jan. 1 and Dec. 23. Since 2000, the only year with fewer tornados was 2002, with 938. The year with the highest number of tornados was 2011, with 1,894. There were 1,119 in 2012.  

 The May 20 tornado that destroyed much of Moore, Okla., was an EF5, according to NOAA, with winds around 300 mph. That's the deadliest kind of tornado. The Moore EF5 was the only one of its strength level anywhere in the U.S. in 2013. 

There were six EF5s in 2011, seven in 1974 and five in 1953, the first year for which NOAA has such records.

This just goes further to prove that climatology is a very hard science to master.